POSCO to supply steel, lithium byproducts as ceramic materials

South Korea's POSCO Group announced on Friday that it will support the pottery and craft industry by utilizing byproducts generated during the production of steel and lithium.

On the previous day, POSCO signed a business agreement with Icheon City in Gyeonggi Province, the Korea Institute of Ceramic Engineering and Technology (KICET) in the field of pottery to establish a material supply cooperation system.

Under the agreement, POSCO will supply steel byproducts such as slag generated during the production of pig iron in the blast furnace and oxide iron generated during the hot-rolled coil finishing process, as well as lithium residue generated after extracting lithium from lithium ore, to KICET. They will also conduct joint research and development to use these byproducts as pottery materials.

Icheon City will support the utilization of the materials thus developed at local pottery and ceramic material production sites within the city.

In the future, POSCO, Icheon City, and KICET plan to launch a pottery brand utilizing the byproducts in collaboration with pottery and ceramic makers in Icheon.

Write to Mi-Sun Kang at misunny@hankyung.com